Prosthetic devices are often required for repairing defects in bone tissue in surgical and orthopedic procedures. Prostheses are increasingly required for the replacement or repair of diseased or deteriorated bone tissue in an aging population and to enhance the body's own mechanism to produce rapid healing of musculoskeletal injuries resulting from severe trauma or degenerative disease.
Tissue engineering scaffolds as prostheses for the replacement and repair of bone tissue promote ingrowth of bone tissue in the body's natural healing process when the physical characteristics of the scaffold material are biocompatible and osteostimulative. The ingrown tissue and the tissue surrounding the implantation site becomes healthy and mature when the mechanical properties of the scaffold material are closely matched to the mechanical properties of the surrounding tissue, i.e., natural bone material. Various materials have been developed for prosthetic devices in an attempt to provide a material with the physical characteristics and mechanical properties of natural bone materials. These materials have been developed in various compositions and composites that attain at least a portion of the desired characteristics, but nearly all materials compromise an aspect of the requirements of an ideal tissue engineering scaffold.